It was held for two decades by the larger-than-life Cyril Smith, first of the Liberal Party and then of the Liberal Democrats. He won a by-election in 1972, taking the seat from Labour, and held it until his retirement in 1992. A native Rochdalian and a former Labour Party member himself, he had a substantial personal vote which always helped to see off his Labour challengers. However, it has since emerged that Smith was a serial child abuser.[5]

After his retirement, contests have been tighter. The Liberal Democrats held the seat at first, with Liz Lynne winning at the 1992 general election, only to lose to Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons at the 1997 election. However, they regained the seat at the 2005 election, with Paul Rowen defeating Fitzsimons. In 2010, the town was brought to national attention when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman, Gillian Duffy, as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning (later described as Bigotgate by the UK media), but despite the unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats, and in 2015 achieved their highest majority in the seat's history, with the Liberal Democrats falling to fourth place.